Ganga continues to carry burden of faith

In Uttar Pradesh, they don't say `Ganga'. For them, it's `Gangaji,' a source of their suste nance and salvation. It's with this belief that scores throng the ghats in Varanasi to perform rituals and immerse ashes in the river.
Arjun Maurya, a resident of neighbouring Jaunpur, has just cremated his father at Manikarnika Ghat. He says, “Cremation in Kashi and immersing ashes in the Ganga have been a matter of faith for generations.It is believed that the body is made of `panch tatva' (five elements). How will Ganga's water, which is one of the five, get polluted if these elements mix?“ At Dashashwamedh Ghat, Vimlesh Kumar Mehra, who has come all the way from Jharkhand to immerse the ashes of his father, says, “Ganga descended on earth to provide salvation to people... Last rites do not pollute the Ganga, sewage and industrial effluents do.“

This the challenge that faith poses to efforts aimed at rejuvenating the river. Experts say you can stop a polluting industry with a court order, but how do you stop a man who has lost his mother from acting on his belief that immersing her ashes in the Ganga will get her moksha?

This burden of faith has been borne by the Ganga for centuries. Ages ago, the rationale was that the ashes-a collection of calcium, phosphates and other minerals from the human body--made the water mineralrich. And that was a boon for farmlands.

“Today , the ritual is misunderstood, and we see half-burnt bodies thrown into the river.Even our scriptures prohibit immersion of bodies in rivers,“ says Lucknow-based river scientist Venkatesh Dutta. Nearly 33,000 bodies are cremated by the riverbanks in Varanasi alone every year. This requires 16,000 tonnes of wood and generates 800 tonnes of ashes.

Former geology professor at Lucknow University IB Singh, who has worked extensively on the Ganga, has a stark insight.“If you live on faith, the river will die. Faith was okay when population was low . Now, it's not a religious problem but a social one. If we talk about scriptures, even defecation in the Ganga is prohibited. But with so many living on the banks of rivers and jostling for space, where will one go?“ Today, Varanasi's population has grown to 36 lakh, while it's 59 lakh in Allahabad-that's part of the matrix which the NDA government has to weave into its flagship initiatives including Namami Gange and the dedicated Ganga rejuvenation wing. It will, obviously , take more than a strong dose of rationality to turn the course.

However, social scientist and former JNU professor Purushottam Agarwal says that when it comes to faith, awareness cannot be imposed. “A sustained campaign not on sentiment but rationality needs to be launched with focus on environment,“ he says. “Unfortunately , anybody who talks about religion is seen as hurting sentiments.“

Agreeing with him, Parveen Kaswan, an Indian Forest Service officer who has campaigned for the issue, says one can't raise questions on faith.According to him, the best way to bring about change is to associate faith with cleaning or protecting the river. On happy occasions like birth or marriage, he says people should be persuaded to plant a tree next to the river or clean it.

One BJP government in an adjoining state has already taken the lead in propagating a more rational approach to the question. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, earlier this year, urged ritualists to desist from immersing ashes in the Narmada. And he said if ashes had to be immersed, make do with a pinch and scatter the rest in your fields.

Last year, the National Green Tribunal had said religious leaders, governments and civic agencies must help change mindsets and promote ecofriendly methods of cremation.The Ganga may well prove to be a litmus test for the Aditya Nath Yogi regime.

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